What do you call them? Beanies? Hats? Knitted stocking cap? Toque?
I used to call them toques (I am Canadian), but no one outside of Canada knows what a Toque is lol. So.... now I call them beanies.
Quite a while ago I did a survey/poll in my FB group about beanies. What did they like best. Apparently top down is everyone's favorite way to crochet a beanie (click on the photos for links to the patterns).
I get it. I have done both while designing. It's a bit easier to adjust a size when making the beanie top down. Bottom up beanies can get a bit scrunched at the top while trying to decrease and not end up with a super long beanie, though those beanies can be fun!
Just over a year ago a friend, who is also a designer, showed me a video of how to make my favorite band for beanies from the top down. Game Changer! For the longest time all my top down patterns had a very plain bottom. Now I can make patterns that might look like they are bottom up because of the way the band is done.
This beanie is an example. See the brim? It's scblo (single crochet back loop) but worked at the end of the hat pattern. How cool is that?! Doing the brim this way does take a bit longer, but it's worth it in the end.
Sometimes the beanie pattern does call for a simpler bottom. They can't all be like the one above lol. This pattern was created with chunky yarn. The pattern just wouldn't have worked with a scblo brim. I tried it with the brim in fpdc (front post double crochet) & bpdc (back post double crochet), but that just didn't look right either.
One day last winter I was playing with some yarn and trying to figure out an easy beanie pattern that had lots of texture. I love texture! :) As I was playing with stitches the beanie just started to work out. It's a fun pattern. The brim on this one ended up being fpdc & bpdc, it just looked right with the way the textured turned out.
Do you have a favorite beanie pattern? I have a few that I really like and make when I need to use up some yarn or make beanies to donate. Of course they are all top down LOL.
Hmmmmm....... How do you feel about pom poms on beanies? I can take them or leave them, it really depends on the style of the beanie.
YARN:
Oh my gosh..... I have made so many toques over the last 7 years with so many different yarns, I'm not sure I can pick a favorite!
It used to be Bernat Premium, but they are not the same as they were years ago so I have stopped buying it. Finding a new "all purpose" yarn as been hard.
Here are my favorites in no particular order:
Bernat Premium (100% Acrylic, 360 yards / 329 meters, 7 oz / 198 g)
Premier Basix (100% Acrylic, 359 yards / 328 meters, 7 ounces / 200 grams)
Stylecraft Special Aran (100% Acrylic, 214 yards / 196 meters, 100 grams)
Herrschners Worsted Heather Yarn (100% Acrylic, 489 yards / 448 meters, 8 ounces / 226 grams)
Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn! (100% Acrylic, 355 yards / 325 meters, 7 ounces / 199 grams)
The Bernat, Stylecraft & Premier yarns are the easiest for me to get so will probably be my go-to yarns now. The Herrschners yarn is nice, but they charge way too much for shipping to Canada. I really like the Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn, but again..... Hobby Lobby does not ship to Canada so I can only buy it when I'm in the US in the winter, so don't use it often. But it's really nice yarn!
I do love all of the self striping and colorful yarns as well, but they are harder to design with, the stitch patterns don't show up well.
Do you know how to adjust sizes on top down beanies? That may have to be another blog post lol.
There are a lot of beanie/hat/toque patterns in my Ravelry Store, Etsy Store, and a few here on the Website. Still working on getting all of my patterns on the website, it's a lot of work.
Oh! Forgot to ask! Do you donate hats? I created a blog post quite a while ago with links people gave me where they donate. If something is missing message or email me with the link and I will add it.
What is your favorite beanie that you have crocheted? Feel free to post a photo and explanation about your project in a post on the Canoe Mtn Designs Crochet & Friends FB group page. Make sure you mention if you post that it's in response to my blog post about Top Down Beanies :)
Thank you so much for reading my post about top down beanies! Happy Crocheting :)
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